Commissioner Roger Goodell’s Thursday night memo to all teams made it clear there’s no benefit to be obtained from publicly arguing for a delay in the draft. The memo also made it clear that there’s a very real downside.
“The [Management Council Executive Committee] was also clear, and I share the Committee’s view, that public discussion of issues
relating to the Draft serves no useful purpose and is grounds for disciplinary action,” Roger Goodell wrote to all teams in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by PFT.
In other words, anyone who would be tempted to echo concerns recently raised by Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis or Broncos G.M. John Elway should resist. Anyone within the league who chooses to go on the record to criticize the league’s decision to proceed with the draft as scheduled on April 23-25 will be subject to punishment.
It will be interesting to see whether anyone calls the league’s bluff on this. Would the league truly take action against someone who argues against moving forward with the draft under the strangest and more serious circumstances America has experienced since World War II? It will be interesting to see whether anyone dares to speak out — and whether the NFL dares to do anything about it.
Regardless, the draft will proceed four weeks from tonight. Nothing anyone inside or outside the league says about that will change it at this point.